my SHORTEST EVER visit to the UK - DoWnPaTrIcK

June 19th 2008, Thursday. Allarm gone off at 5:30am (I was wishing for more sleep as it wasn't long before that I went to bed that night - sorry - morning), quick shower, quick cup of tea, some food prep done for my trip and then - gone to the bus station, heading to the airport. Aircoach was actually pretty much on time, only have waited for 10 minutes, and I made in to he airport in perfect time - even 5 minutes before our scheduled appointment with my 2 priest-friends at 7:30am. And this is how our day started. Journey was lovely, as was the morning and - we had "brilliant" time!! :-)

Vo stvrtok 19. juna som bola na mojej najkratsej (doteraz) navsteve v Spojenom Kralovstve - v Severnom Irsku. Den sa zacal skoro (o pol siestej rano - joj, ako sami este chcelo pospat, lebo do postele som sla az okolo pol druhej - sa mi nechcelo spat...), ale stalo to za to - o pol osmej som uz bola na letisku, kde sme mali zraz - Erik, otec John a ja - a kratko po pol osmej sme uz frcali dialnicou M1 hore smerom na sever, do mesta zvaneho Downpatrick, kde je pochovany Sv. Patrik. Den bol krasny uz od rana :-)

Arrived to Downpartick, Co. Down, having realized only shortly beforehand that we, indeed, were in Nothern Ireland already. 't was a nice "wee" surprise, as I have never been to NI before, nor was Fr. John, so - that was cool... Country side, roads and even villages and little towns were "brilliant". Or shall I just say - lovely?

The three of us, on our way up thill, to visit the graveyard.

Once in Downpatrick, we parked by St. Patrick's Centre, had a cup of tea and a nice wee breakfast in their Caffee, and then went on for a nice wee tour - following in St. Patrick's footsteps, listening to the story of his life, and enjoying a very well done A/V presentation and a very interesting i-max movie about his legacy. I-max was cool... Or, shall I say "brilliant"?? :-) Afterwards we went up this nice wee hill, to visit St. Patrick's grave, and to pray for our close onew, and also for the whole of Ireland (who did so well in that recent referendum I mentioned a few entries before). The sun was up and high, the skies were up and blue and we were up and happy (or at least so was I!!) to be there...

Ked sme dosli, zaparkovali sme pri Centre Sv. Patrika, naranajkovali sa v jeho kaviarnicke, a vybrali sme sa na "turu" po jeho slapajach - audiovizualna vyprava do minulosti a musim podotknut ze to bolo velmi dobre spracovane... Sranda - boli sme aj na mini filme - I-MAX (trojdimenzionalne prevedenie), ktore malo predstavit dedicstvo Sv. Patrika v Irsku. Citili sme sa akoby sme leteli helikopterou ponad jazera a hory (ci mini-hory) Irska, a ono to tak aj skutocne vyzeralo - normalne sami aj hlava sem-tam zakrutila... Bolo to super!

St. Patrick's Grave stone. Very simple. Quite big. Nahrobny kamen na hrobe Sv. Patrka. Jednoduchy. A poriadne tazky...

This is me (obviously...), with behind a Church of Ireland (C of I) church by which there is St. Patrick's grave. Lovely weather, was it? Toto som ja na ulici s v pozadi kostolom (neviem ktoreho svateho - bola to Irska cirkev, neviem ci ich pomenuvaju - myslim ze ano ale nemala som sa ako dozvediet ze ako sa volala)

The Saul Church, C of I now. Saulov Kostol - jedno z miest o ktorych sa domnievaju ze tam Patrik pristal (nedaleko je zaliv) ked prisiel evanjelizovat Irsko.
By the Saul Church, with countryside around and a sea-shore behind. V pozadi (len velmi malinko) zaliv kde mala pristat lod so Sv. Patrikom ked prisiel na misiu na ostrov.

Afterwards a short de-tour to visit a Saul Church, one of many places St. Patrick is supposed to have arrived when returning to evangelize the island of Ireland many many years ago. Afterwards we took off, had a lovely wee lunch in a town of.... hm, I forget, and returned to Dublin later in the afternoon. Went down town, had a pint of beer and a hint of song in a wee pub in Temple Bar area, and then a bite of hot chicken wings in yet another pub, before we said our good byes and returned to our dwellign places - me to my wee little cottage and my friends to their wee little B&B, from where they were to leave the following morning.
And THAT was my shortest ever visit to the United Kingdom (and Northern Ireland as such), but - one more time - quantity was not what made it so special and so great (and so "brilliant" again :-). It was the company of friends and of Saints instead...